YouView, would IPTV world's answer to Freeview, may get a soft launch into 2500 homes before the start of the Olympic Games.
The platform, backed by broadcasters the BBC and ITV, ISPs BT and TalkTalk, and broadcasting infrastructure owner Arqiva, is currently being tested in a hundred locations in London by YouView stakeholder …

COMMENTS

Why?

Why do people (read: press) continue to ignore the main driver for these platforms?

IE: choice.

This isn't about ANOTHER replay tv platform, it's about being able to choose which tv stations you want, and how you want to watch them.

I am one amongst many who bemoan being forced to buy a package of channels I don't want in order to watch a couple that I do. Imagine being able to just choose those channels, without the overhead of say, the satellite, or the cable provider... I have bandwidth, i'll use it how I want.

"Alun" Sugar

Alun Sugar?

Catch up tv is only 9.2%..

is this because apart from the BBC iPlayer and a very poor showing from Demand5 no other catch up tv channels exist apart from on computers which are pretty difficult to easily set up on TVs.

I have a Sony TV which I use to watch iPlayer and the occasional movie from Sony. What I would really like is a facility that lets me watch catch up TV from all broadcasters and lets me search for material on line (rather than the walled garden approach that exists today) to that I can watch what I want and not what others want me to watch.

Of course to achieve that delightful scenario I would also need me current ISP or any ISP to upgrade my local exchange so that I can get download speeds in excess of 3mbps (off-peak) and 1mbps (peak) on a regular basis but hey if all the money has gone to Yourview then I suppose I'll have to wait until it turns a profit which won't happen 'cos like me 70% of the UK does not have a decent broadband connection and at current deployment rates probably never will

Re: Catch up tv is only 9.2%..

It couldn't be easier to connect a computer to a TV. My Acer Revo is connected with an HDMI lead and has a wireless keyboard and mouse and gives me unfettered access to all the catchup online services and other providers without being straight-jacketed by what the TV makers want to restrict me too. Youview is unnecessary.

Re: Catch up tv is only 9.2%..

Power requirements alone could easily do that. Games machines make poor media centres for that reason. An xbox uses about 150W - £200-£300 a year if you leave it on (as you would, being a media centre). A PS3 is worse.. 300W!

A Roku uses 5W. Apple TV is similar.

Within a couple of TV generations they'll all have this stuff built in, so the net cost power cost would then be barely measurable.

Subscription IPTV

Subscription IPTV hasn't exactly taken off in the UK so far.

If there's a standard target platform in YouView and each broadcaster can run their own packages, rather than being limited to whatever channels BT Vision or TalkTalk.TV choose to bundle, then it could take off, especially if most new TVs have YouView bundled and so do many new FreeView/FreeSat boxes (especially all the PVR ones)

I can get Eurosport player for £2.99 a month to watch the cycling (niche market, yeah, but there's lots of niche markets around the world; this is the Long Tail in TV).

I can run that from a computer to my TV, but that's still a hassle compared to getting it to run inside a YouView box, or even a YouView app running in a media centre like XBMC that has a proper 10-foot interface and works with a remote.

It also will completely unbundle Sky and Virgin. If you can get any channel on YouView direct from the broadcaster, rather than buying a package from Sky / Virgin, then why not do just that?

Sure, the Sky channels are still bundled with each other, but it opens up a route to market for all the other channels. If I'm a minority sport where there's TV already being made (i.e. popular somewhere outside the UK), then all I need to do is take an existing English-language feed from another broadcaster and drop it to YouView - the subscriptions are pure profit. Even if there isn't an English broadcast, paying two commentators and a producer won't cost that much to slap a commentary onto existing pictures.

Re: Subscription IPTV

TVCatchup.com anyone?

You guys & gals at the Register really need to catch up with what's really going off in UK IPTV.

TVCatchup.com, the legal service that has been providing IPTV for years to the UK represents a big chunk of IPTV viewing in this country, check out if any ISP's will give you details, but TVC during large sporting events account for a significant % of the total IP traffic moving around the UK.

TVC already provides more channels than Freeview, offers (experimentally at the moment) HD channels and will be providing all the BBC Olympic feeds from their platform.

Just because the BBC, ITV et al don't like to talk about TVC doesn't mean it isn't actually the incumbent and serious player in the IPTV stakes in the UK.

Is this thing ever going to launch? I am in my twenties yet I am fully expecting to be long dead by the time it comes out! I honestly think it would be quicker for Paris to evolve into a race of super humans!

All I want is a set top box that allows IPTV content to be downloaded at decent quality. YouView may be what I am looking for. I believe it will include a HDD but they may be for recording broadcasts only.

My smart TV has iPlayer and Blinkbox built in, but no downloading. I'm at the mercy of my ISPs service to be able to watch something without seeing Buffering... and the quality can be poor.

I would even accept a forced advert each 20 minutes or so. Sometimes it seems like they want people to illegally download stuff.

Original launch target for Cavas (aka Youview) was 2009!

It was meant to be available for the Granada analogue switch off in November/December which was the first big switch. About 80% of the country has switched since then, 3 Christmases and a World Cup have passed since then and it will very soon have missed an Olympics and a Euro-cup.

The reason more of the catch up services are not on the IPTV platforms is not that the platform operators don't want them but the content providers don't want to go there or commercial terms haven't been reached.

As the concept currently exists Youview's only chance is the business model and subsidies of BT and Talk Talk. I expect very little impact as a standalone consumer product.

BT Vision

I would like YouView if only so BT can finally upgrade their ageing BT Vision boxes. They can't even do HD. I can't get Sky or Virgin, and BT Vision has been fine in general, but an upgrade would be lovely if it ever happens.